How Great Service Restaurants Spent More Time on Their Business, And Less Time on Scheduling

FOUNDED: 2010

INDUSTRY:Restaurant

CUSTOMER SINCE:2014

TRACKSMART SOLUTIONS:Scheduling

OUTCOME:An estimated 50% reduction in time spent making weekly schedules

Meet Brittney Langer:

Brittney Langner, General Manager of the training store for Great Service Restaurants, LLC the Jamba Juice Franchise in South Florida since 2012.

Quick Facts:

Great Service Restaurants, LLC the Jamba Juice franchise operator in South Florida strives to be the leading healthy lifestyle brand, creating positive change for customers and team members

Scheduling 14-20 employees, depending on the season

TrackSmart increased customer and employee engagement by reducing the time managers spent scheduling and managing employee time-off requests, allowing them to save time and help fulfill their mission

The Challenge:

Before using TrackSmart, Great Service Restaurants, LLC the Jamba Juice Franchise in South Florida, tracked scheduling through a system connected to their POS computers and registers. But, the process made it difficult for employees to enter their availability, forcing them to record time-off requests manually.

“We would only have [them] in paper form and were unable to send them via email,” says Langner. “They weren’t linked to their email or to an app or anything like that.”

They needed an efficient, user-friendly program that would allow team members to request days off and have access to their schedules from anywhere — which led them to TrackSmart.

The Solution:

Switching to virtual schedules using the TrackSmart mobile app proved to be a natural transition. Staff caught on quickly and felt comfortable using a virtual system. During the new hire training orientation, Langner uploads new employees’ email and contact information, and then he or she is added into the system, and are ready to be scheduled.

“It’s usually a quick 5 to 10-minute process to get them comfortable with the app and the services and then they’re good to go,” says Langner. Another plus is that employees can access one another’s phone numbers through the app if they need to switch or cover shifts. The notes and message feature allows Langner and her team to keep track of shifts and breaks, as well.

Langner and fellow management enter the maximum number of hours an employee can work and monitor the hours through the app. This has simplified the scheduling process by providing an itemized view of daily and weekly schedules, while also minimizing human error.

“It’s a very simple app to use,” says Langner. “It doesn’t take up a lot of space. It’s overall a lot easier.”

“With this user-friendly app, we get to spend more time in the front of house, which allows more guest interaction because we spend less time making schedules,” says Langner. “I’m no one without my guests, so being able to be out on the floor and interact with them, instead of being in the back of house, is definitely better for our business.”